Thing Eighteen: Social Networks

    I already have a Twitter account: https://twitter.com/callieedavis but I don't use it very often. Even those most reluctant to joining social networking will eventually have to admit that it is useful, and probably one of the most powerful tools we have available to us today. Educators need to understand that ours students are immersed in a culture full of social media, and all the negative hype it brings doesn't always tell the whole story. Further, we can be very effective educators by using these tools appropriately.
     I can't say I really gained any new insights into twitter. I am comfortable using it, as I have had an account for over a year. What I liked about hashtag searching on twitter is that it brings up more relevant information to me, and surprisingly was more appropriate than Delicious. Delicious brought up all kinds of things that I have no interest in and would never use. Twitter may not bring up everything that is necessarily classroom worthy, but it at least fits my search criteria. For example, when I typed in "second grade" Delicious brought up a few relevant things, but had some sites with the tags "sexy" and various other ridiculous things. Twitter brought up plenty of pictures of cute second graders and tweets about first days of school, but it also helped me find some education tweets to read and follow.
    I think social media can absolutely be used in the classroom. I had a professor that created a twitter for our class and used it to tweet us homework tips, interesting articles relevant to our studies, and reminders for class. It is a great way to keep in touch with students, parents, and other teachers, as long as it is used in the right way.